Alumni Rowan Nicholson and Matthew Samson have been awarded University of Cambridge scholarships for research in International Law and Psychology respectively.
Rowan was one of seven applicants out of a competitive field of 44 academics to be awarded a Cambridge Australia Scholarship, awarded to outstanding Australian graduates to undertake Masters and PhD studies at the University of Cambridge.
Beginning October 2014, Rowan will pursue a doctorate in international law, focusing on the extent to which it has developed beyond its origins in Western Europe into a ‘universal’ legal system.
“One of the historical curiosities of public international law is that despite centuries of claims of universal legal authority – by emperors, popes and natural lawyers – the system that spread around the world rested on avowedly non-universal principles,” said Rowan.
Alumnus Matthew Samson received a prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship, established in 2000 by a donation of US$210m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It facilitates postgraduate students with a capacity for leadership and a commitment to improving the lives of others.
“I aim to investigate the factors that cause differential moral judgments towards issues such as gun reform and climate change. I hope that my PhD makes possible second-generation research investigating strategies that can strengthen adaptive and weaken maladaptive moral judgments,” said Matthew.